Re: Horner's JP3 interview

[Josh Smith <smithjb@sas.upenn.edu>]

Jordan Mallon wrote:

> I couldn't agree with you more, James.  If you ask me, it would seem that
> Horner has (dare I say it?)... sold out!  Making claims that _Spinosaurus_
> could have measured up to 60 feet long is fine with me, since we don't have
> a whole lot of evidence either way.  But saying that we do have evidence to
> support such a claim is wrong.
> I also find it interesting that Horner, too, now subscribes to
> "Brontosaurus."
>
> -Jordan Mallon
>
>
> >
> >This may or may not have been posted previously on the list. (If so,
> >disregard this post)
> >
> >I recently downloaded one of the JP3 movie trailers which features an
> >interview with renown paleontologist, Jack Horner. The short interview
> >dealt primarily with the _Spinosaurus_ model used in the movie, and
> >how realistically it's apparently portrayed based on current
> >paleontological data. What puzzles me is his mentioning that
> >_Spinosaurus_ is the largest carnivore that ever walked the earth, and
> >more specifically, that the largest specimens (only one, AFAIK...)
> >were ~60ft. in length in possession of 8-ft. skulls!!  FWIK, even the
> >skull this species may have actually had is in dispute, is it not?
> >Where did he obtain information that correlates with these claims?
> >Isn't Horner a specialist in hadrosaurine dinosaurs? I find it very
> >disconcerting (to say the least) that a famous paleontologist would
> >indulge in such erroneous/exaggerating statements, especially
> >regarding genera that are not within his specialization.
> >
>

I don't know why Jack's behavior would be termed "selling out," but if that
trailer actually quotes him as saying those things, it IS a bit unsettling.
Since the only known reasonably complete specimen of this beast was probably a
sub-adult, it reasons that _S. agyptiacus_ (I presume this is what they are
taking about here...) was certainly probably ONE of the largest predators
known to date.  I don't know where the hell that 60 foot long specimen with an
8 foot skull is though...too bad, I would like to measure its teeth...  It is
possible that extrapolations from within the Spinosauridae were being made
using other, related taxa.

-jb


--
Josh Smith
Department of Earth and Environmental Science
University of Pennsylvania
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